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Cisco targets network convergence with Catalyst 3850

Much has been made in recent days of Cisco Systems (Nasdaq: CSCO) breaking ties with the consumer market by selling Linksys, but if there is a broader telecom resurgence to be had for the company it will come through new networking products connecting with the latest technology trends.

The company this week began to do just that with the announcement of a new addition to its Catalyst switch family, the Catalyst 3850 Switch. The new product is focused squarely at a top-of-mind networking need—to better integrate wireline and wireless networking.

The Catalyst 3850 relies on a unified access data plane ASIC for terminating bother wireless and wireline traffic, and features the new 5760 Wireless LAN Controller for converged wireless and wireline LAN controller functionality, as well as a hierarchical quality of service functions for converged network environments.

The telecom industry loves to debate what unified communications really means. Well, at the enterprise networking level, what it really means is ensuring that a variety of different devices used by employees—even their own personal mobile devices—can access the network with full policy and management support regardless of location or method of access.